Tag: add-ons

Legacy Add-ons

The auto-update of WordPress v 4.8.2 and above required a major update to the WP Store Locator Plus free base plug-in resulting in the end of compatibility with the popular Pro Pack , Tagalong and other Legacy add-ons. The Legacy add-ons are no longer supported nor maintained and have been retired over the past two years as announced in news posts, blogs , changelogs, mail campaigns and social media. If you are not sure if your add-on is considered Legacy, see the FAQ comparison featured to Legacy add-ons

Time to invest in your future

Some of our customers were surprised by the change and retirement of the Legacy Add-ons. We tried to give as much of a heads up as possible using news blogs, content news to the home site and reached out using a Mail Chimp campaign for those most likely effected. Ultimately, there is no sure fire method to reach the thousands of customers who may have had these older add-ons installed. If there is one thing we know, change in the technical genre is inevitable. The SLP support team will always endeavor to help our customers transition to the new age. We pledge they will see real value-added from updating their site and software . Please take a moment to review the multiple benefits of utilizing the newer Experience add-on, Power add-on.

Although downgrading to an earlier version of SLP is an option, you may note that changes to the WordPress code and their security patches may disable features. Before making any changes to your site you should ensure you are backing up your site WP database and files. It is very important to take this step before you have issues or worse, site crashes. WordPress security has become more robust over the years.

For more information please see this important message from the author:

Note: Starting in March 2017 you can now pay with a credit card via Stripe. This will not interact in any way with PayPal and allows you to purchase subscriptions on a credit card.

WordPress Store Locator Plus add ons can be purchased with a credit card. To do so go through the normal checkout procedure. When the PayPal login screen appears choose the “Pay with Debit or Credit Card” button on the bottom of the screen. Fill out your details for the credit card information.

This will allow you to make the purchase and have it billed directly to your credit card WITHOUT going through a PayPal account.

As we continue to phase out the legacy add ons you may find that one of the add ons you purchased no longer works with the latest version of the free Store Locator Plus plugin for WordPress. You have a few options when this happens.

Option 1 : Upgrade Your SLP WordPress Add On

The features that were part of the following Legacy add-ons , Enhanced Map, Enhanced Search, Enhanced Results, and the Widget Pack, are now part of the Experience add on along with dozens of new features that have been added over the past 2 years.

Features and functionality found in the Legacy add-ons , Pro Pack, Tagalong, Pages, Contact Extender and Directory Builder, are included in the Power add on with the exception of the CSS layout box which is now part of the Experience add-on.

Combining multiple add ons into a single larger add on allowed us to make the code more efficient and use less overhead on your site. They are faster, use less memory (important for high traffic sites), and work with the latest features of Store Locator Plus 4.7+ and WordPress 4.5 and above.

Option 2 : Downgrade Store Locator Plus

If you upgraded moments ago and have not published new blog posts, received WooCommerce orders, or had other activity you want to retain since upgrading the base plugin you should be able to restore your latest site backup. You are backing up your site with a solution like VaultPress, aren’t you? If so a few clicks will put your Store Locator Plus plugin back to the version you were running earlier today.

No backup or too risky to restore? You can download and re-install the older version of Store Locator Plus.

NOTE:

We absolutely do NOT recommend rolling back any plugins or themes on a live site. Test the rollback locally first, have backups, test on a staging or dev site first and use WordPress best practice tools available to you. Research first!

You can get the older versions of the install zip files from the WordPress directory.

Select the latest version that did not disable your legacy add on. It will download a zip file.

Login to your WordPress admin panel.

Deactivate Store Locator Plus and delete it (your locations and most* settings will be retained).

Add a new plugin, select “upload” and select the SLP zip file you just downloaded.

*Most settings will be retained. Sometimes we migrate settings between versions to speed up the options processor. When we add a new feature or fix a bug we may find that we need to rename a setting. If something is not exactly the same check your settings first. 99% of your settings will not change. We also try not to change settings between upgrades but sometimes it is inevitable. Also – this is ANOTHER great reason to be using a backup service. Point-in-time restores will not only restore the plugin code but all the settings in the options table!

Option 3 : Migrate to My Store Locator Plus

MySLP is our SaaS service that works with any web or mobile app including WordPress and brings most of the features you find in the base plugin plus some extras with it. The Professional level includes all of the Experience and Power add on features. The Enterprise level includes all of that plus the Premier features.

We take care of backing up the data, fully testing the software between releases, and are adding custom MySLP features on a regular basis. We manage the location server, geocoding limits, and all the other overhead of the locator. You just enter locations , turn the “dials” to set the look and feel of the locator, and paste a short snippet of JavaScript code on any page or post where you want your locator to appear.

Question: I would like to use your WordPress plugin to add location searching to my site. I would like to be able to rank and even possibly remove locations from the search results. Also, each location offers different products of mine. So, if a user selects a product and a zip code I would like to show them locations that offer the product they are looking for ranked in order of my ranking system. I have many locations (10k +). Can you please let me know what addons I will need to accomplish my goals? I definitely need to be able to upload CSVs.

A: The latest version of Store Locator Plus may have disabled your Legacy add-ons to ensure your site does not crash due to coding changes, bug fixes and updates to WP including security fixes. This is not a free auto update , you need to log into your account: Go to “MY Account” on Store Locator Plus.com and purchase the replacement for the Legacy add-ons . If you decide to roll back SLP to an earlier version. (not suggested, always be sure to have a back-up of your site. You may find back-up info in Vault Press or Jet Pack. If you do decide to downgrade SLP to an earlier version we cannot provide support and cannot make any guarantees on whether or not it will work correctly.

Obtaining An Add On Pack

All add-on packs are available from the Store Locator Plus website. Power Add-On , Experience Add-on , or you can purchase a Premier Subscription that provides access to all of the add-on packs as well as preferred access to the Premier support forums, pre-release products, new features and functionality that is available only to subscribers. Limited legacy add-ons may be available for purchase but will not be updated beyond their current versions

Note: If you purchase the Power or Experience add-ons as an upgrade to your existing (Legacy) add-ons, the legacy add-ons will automatically be deactivated. In some instances you may need to delete the legacy add-ons. This is why we state, “always have a full backup of your site” We strongly recommend looking into the WordPress backup, or better option Jet Pack. One of the features included , besides real-time incremental backups of your site with restore points, is the ability to restore the site to an alternate site

<!–more–>

Install An Add On Pack

Add On Packs are not listed in the WordPress Plugin Directory. As such they need to be installed via the below installation process.

Login To Your Store Locator Plus Account

Download the latest zip file for your add-on pack.

Login to your WordPress admin panel for your website.

Go to the plugins sidebar menu.

Select Add New.

Select Upload.

Browse to your downloaded zip file.

Click Install now.

Activate

Updating An Add On Pack

Once installed a query from the WordPress Admin Panel communicates with the Store Locator Plus servers and a message or red line will be shown as updates are available. Occasionally, the WP server times out before it gets to the SLP plugin servers. Use the check again tool in the WP Admin sidebar or check the versions at the Store Locator Plus home page. You may also opt to follow our news feeds, twitter and Facebook for information.

Some third-party plugins and WordPress themes can prevent the update notice appearing from the Store Locator Plus server. It is prudent to visit the Versions Page and, if necessary, perform a manual update.